Almost 12 months ago trainer Alan Bailey touted Age Of Heroes as a Queensland Guineas contender.Fast forward to now and Bailey will be happy to just to see Age Of Heroes make his comeback in the XXXX Gold Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.Age Of Heroes won four of his first five starts before spectacularly blotting his copybook when he stopped in the straight to finish last, 30 lengths from winner Lucky Luna in a 1350-metre class six at Doomben on June 8.The failure stunned Bailey who

Almost 12 months ago trainer Alan Bailey touted Age Of Heroes as a Queensland Guineas contender.

Fast forward to now and Bailey will be happy to just to see Age Of Heroes make his comeback in the XXXX Gold Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Wednesday.

Age Of Heroes won four of his first five starts before spectacularly blotting his copybook when he stopped in the straight to finish last, 30 lengths from winner Lucky Luna in a 1350-metre class six at Doomben on June 8.

The failure stunned Bailey who was at a loss to explain the son of Grandera's performance.

"I got the vet to go all over him but we couldn't find anything wrong," Bailey said.

"It was strange because I had a good opinion of him and thought he might make a winter carnival horse last year."

Eventually, Bailey sent Age Of Heroes to the Randwick veterinary clinic in Sydney where it was discovered the then three-year-old was suffering from a rare complaint.

"I had him scanned at Randwick and we found he had bone problems all over him," Bailey said.

"He had a lot of hot spots and stress in his bones."

Bailey gave Age Of Heroes plenty of time to recover before bringing the gelding back into work late last year.

"He had to have a decent break but whether he comes back as good we won't know for a while," Bailey said.

"He seems to be on the right track after he won a barrier trial quite well at the Gold Coast a fortnight ago."

Bailey has been training for several decades but said he had never come across a similar disorder which Age Of Heroes developed.

"I've never had a horse in all my years of training with this type of problem," Bailey said.

"I know of a few horses that have had it and I've spoken to their trainers about it.

"It a bone deficiency and horses who develop it need to be trained differently.

"But from what I've been told once they have it, not to many recover."